EMG refurbishment

[TGD]

I hope to enjoy this article with whole pickups makers community.

EMG J5 refurbishment

I'm sorry also for my poor english

Piero Terracina - Magnetics™ Pickups

[Stealth]

Interesting read. Thank you for writing it up along with the photos inside. Your English is fairly good, I could figure out most of the process without much trouble.

[Possum]

....

Great job, hope you made some money?

[David Schwab]

Wow, those were old EMGs. I don't think I've ever seen red epoxy used, just the brown snot looking stuff. The date code was HGJ, which is 10/1987.

That looked like a lot of work for some old covers!

I have a very early Overlend EMG mini humbucker.

[TGD]

Thank you guys for your hits. Surely, I gain money for that job, but not more than a couple of my active pickups.

David, I took this pic for you; I' ve many EMG pickups here in my workshop made when Rob Turner was a guy working in his garage in Santa Rosa...

This unit has been made on 1984. Resin used isn't a standard epoxy (they started to use it on the end of '80, black color); it's phenolic resin, cream color.

[David Schwab]

This unit has been made on 1984. Resin used isn't a standard epoxy (they started to use it on the end of '80, black color); it's phenolic resin, cream color.

Oh they are real old! Yeah, that cream colored stuff.

When I worked at American Showster we still had some of the early SA models with that cream colored stuff. It bulged out the back of the pickup too. Those were nicer sounding units than the later SA's.

[TGD]

Oh they are real old! Yeah, that cream colored stuff.

When I worked at American Showster we still had some of the early SA models with that cream colored stuff. It bulged out the back of the pickup too. Those were nicer sounding units than the later SA's.

David, I noticed sound changements since EMG switched with SMD internal preamp (1985); pickups became to be too much compressed and sounds no natural.

That's why I still prefer to build my own preamps using conventional components (metalic fim resistors, micro electrolitic capacitors etc.) since 1983

[Possum]

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I still have a whole box full of photo prop EMG electronics from back in those days when I did all their advertising design. I wonder if Rob even works there anymore, Premier Guitar did a horrible video interview there and everyone I knew back then was gone, the place is mostly automated now. Think I'll put this stuff on Ebay one day.....Do you remember Gary, his sidekick, forgot his last name, he was always there, even on weekends...

[TGD]

I still have a whole box full of photo prop EMG electronics from back in those days when I did all their advertising design. I wonder if Rob even works there anymore, Premier Guitar did a horrible video interview there and everyone I knew back then was gone, the place is mostly automated now. Think I'll put this stuff on Ebay one day.....Do you remember Gary, his sidekick, forgot his last name, he was always there, even on weekends...

I meet Rob and his brother Mike in 1979 in Santa Rosa, when EMG was inside a garage near his flat at Village Side. I don't remember that guy, when I've been there they were 3 people working, including an very young indian guy. Company was named Overlend EMG. I been their italian distributor for a couple of years, before to start in building pickups by myself... but this is an other story...

I don't know exactly EMG evolution on the years, but Rob shown to be a good businessman; he sold lots of active pickups, I' ve been also Valley Arts distributor here in Italy, so I received many information about EMG during '90s.

I don't like so much how they sound; too much compressed and innatural tone, I agreed with David, old production (before 1985) sounds better. Anyway, concerning building process new production is same as the old. Really well made.

[David Schwab]

Rob is still with EMG. He's the president. I think he might have also done some work for Fender with the vintage noiseless pickups.

[edit]

I just found this interview:

The Rock House Blog: Conversations with EMG Pickup Owner Rob Turner - A RHB Exclusive Interview

Interestingly he points out that the older EMG designs have a pretty high output impedance to work with a passive tone control. I discovered that back in the late 80's. They give you 25K pots, but many of the pickups sounded better with 100K.

The higher output impedance also meant they needed more gain at the preamp, which gave that compressed tone.

I heard some clips of the new X series bass pickups and they sound a lot better.

[Possum]

...

I know Rob is the president, he is who I reported to every visit to show new designs to, he was always the final word. Gary Rush is who I was trying to remember. I just got the impression from the PG interview that Rob isn't active at the factory anymore.
I don't know about the bass stuff they made but they outfitted my strat with the full blow setup, the pickups weren't that great, what put them across were their accessory tone controls, the SPC and some others, that made the pickups sound better. I liked them alot til one day I picked up a friend's stock noisy strat and realized they sounded ten times better than the noiseless pickups, so I tore all that stuff out and threw it away, didn't tell them of course. Even back then it was really only metal guys who used their guitar stuff. I still have the accessories demo box I designed the layout and graphics for, you can use those circuits on passive pickups too, there's bass accessories in it as well. I fondly remember Rob telling me the internet would never be anything "but a toy," wife and I knew even back then how big it was going to be. Living that close to silicon valley we got all that technology first and all the graphic designers around me either jumped into it or went out of business, amazing times they were....

[Sam Lee Guy]

TGD, velly nice work!

[Possum]

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I don't think it was Rob that did the noiseless for Fender, weren't they done in the 80's as well? Fender jumped on us for running an ad with a strat headstock shape in it, they made us change the shape, even though I airbrushed out the Fender name, Rob was pretty pissed about it..

[TGD]

I don't think it was Rob that did the noiseless for Fender, weren't they done in the 80's as well? Fender jumped on us for running an ad with a strat headstock shape in it, they made us change the shape, even though I airbrushed out the Fender name, Rob was pretty pissed about it..

Fender noiseless pickups are a Bill Lorentz design.

Sam Lee Guy, thank you very much.

[David Schwab]

Fender noiseless pickups are a Bill Lorentz design.

The SPN pickups are Bill's, but I read a post at a forum, I think it was the Tele forum, where somebody from EMG did those pickups. I thought it was Rob Turner, but now that I think about it, he said "back when I was at EMG..."

I'll have to find that post.

Anyone heard any news about Bill's health lately?

[edit]

OK, it was Bill Turner who redesigned the vintage noiseless pickups. It seems they might have originally been a BL design, but there's no evidence of that. I had read his posts at the FDP forum. But he said he worked at EMG before he was at Fender.

He's also the guy who designed the reissue WR humbuckers.